New Pottstown Super and Walking School Bus Kudos

Photo by Evan Brandt

Just some of the many volunteers who make Pottstown's Walking School Bus a success were thanked by the school board during Monday night's meeting.

As most of you no doubt know from reading your Tuesday morning Mercury, Acting Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez dropped the "acting" last night and became just Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez.

So I won't waste your precious reading time by focusing on that. Go buy a newspaper!

But something else that happened Monday night is also worthy of your attention.

In case you've missed in the pages of The Mercury, Pottstown is experimenting with something called The Walking School Bus.

The idea is adult volunteers accompany students walking to Rupert Elementary School and pick-up students along the route so they can all walk together, improving safety and getting exercise.

The problem is 95 percent of those programs fail in the first year, as Rodriguez noted.

But not in Pottstown. Here, the program has increased in size, as is evidenced in the photo above, which shows just a portion of the many volunteers whose names were read off Monday by wellness coordinator David Genova.

Congrats to all.

Also of note last night, the board voted to raise by 10 percent the fees charged for renting school facilities and to charge parking fees as well.

The Foundation for Pottstown Education announced the final arrangements to fund a program by which teachers and other district employees would be provided with a $10,000 forgivable loan  to buy a house in the borough.

There were a few other things of interest as well, and you can find them here among the Tweets, rife, as usual, with typos.

Rotary Volunteers Help Drive Walking School Bus

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown Rotary Club

The Pottstown Rotary Club stepped up with several other local organizations to provide volunteers for the Walking School Bus program sponsored by the Pottstown School District during the 2015-2016 school year at Rupert Elementary School.

The Walking Bus became a reality in 2015 after the Pottstown School District took the position that encouraging more students to walk to school could reduce absenteeism and tardiness, increase fitness, reduce vehicle congestion at the school, and perhaps trade some of that endless young energy for a readiness to learn.

After promotion of the program to parents and kids, and design of the “safe” routes to Rupert Elementary which varied from 1 to 1.5 miles, the remaining critical need was for the bus ‘drivers”.

That’s where Brooke Martin of the Pottstown Rotary Club came in with about five of her colleagues, to be part of the total of 40 volunteers eventually signed on individually or from the other eight local participating organizations and employers.

Each week over the length of the school year, rain or shine, anywhere from 3 to 6 Rotary members would meet their early morning ‘passengers’ on their assigned route to school.

Most members walked one day a week, some more, all were available as substitutes, and all were at least as excited about snow-days as the kids. The shortest route with just a couple of kids only needed two volunteers each day; the longer route with 20 kids enrolled usually needed four volunteers.

Adding up three routes on five days for 25 weeks brought the total trip length to 425 miles that were covered over the duration of the Walking School Bus program.

Two of those Rotary members have bragging rights for being present for 50 of those miles, in a new definition of community service.

A Rotary goal in the coming school year is to expand its involvement with this worthwhile program.

The mission of Rotary is to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through its fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.

The Pottstown Rotary is committed to working both globally and locally.

The Legs on the Bus Go Walk Walk Walk

Yes it's July.

Yes, it's hot as blazes.

And yes, school is just around the corner.

So in addition to getting supplies, and uniforms and shoes, and back-packs, parents at Rupert Elementary School need to start thinking about getting ready to walk.

The school is looking for a dedicated corps of volunteers to help walk Rupert students to school every day as part of its Walking School Bus" program.

We are all familiar with how traditional school buses work. Walking school buses operate much the same way. Adults “drive” the walking school bus along a defined route, picking up kids at “stops” on the way. A walking school bus is convenient for busy parents, who can’t always walk with their children, and helps address safety concerns.

“It’s going to help our families that need assistance with getting their children to and from school each day,” Rupert Elementary School Principal Matt Moyer told The Mercury in March.

He said the program is also a healthy activity and will get students moving before class.

“Getting them up and getting them a good, brisk walk in the morning will prep them and get their brains ready to learn,” Moyer said.

He said the U.S. society as a whole doesn’t really have a big culture of walking and biking.

“In this country you get in a car and drive everywhere. You go to other countries, it’s not like that,” he said. “This is an opportunity to change some of that culture so people can see that a walking school bus is just as good as or potentially better than the yellow school bus.”

William Parks, the health and physical education teacher at Pottstown High School, told Michilea Patterson, The Mercury's Fit for Life reporter, that walking to school will benefit all students involved.

“Getting any physical activity in the morning raises your metabolism so it uses their energy level throughout the day,” he said.

In addition to high school volunteers, Pottstown's walking bus coordinator David Genova is looking for adults willing to help, even if its only one day a week.
Schools Superintendent Jeff Sparagana said coordinators also looking into using retired members of the communities as volunteers. He said there’s a program for retirees where they get a tax break for service.

Getting involved couldn't be easier.

But given that background checks will be necessary for the "bus" that picks up and drops off students along the "walking bus route," the sooner you sign up, the sooner you can help.

Click here to get a copy of the application form that you can print out and fill out.

Contact David Genova at 610-763-1466 or dgenova@pottstownsd.org for more information.